


Seeing the Forest Redux

by blynninja



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: X & Y | Pokemon X & Y Versions
Genre: F/M, Gen, I Ship It, I guess????, amourshipping, episode rewrite, seeing the forest for the trees redux
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-09 20:25:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11112189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blynninja/pseuds/blynninja
Summary: An AU/Redux (fix, re-write) of XYZ 1x28 in which Serena chases after Ash alone in that blizzard. Conversations and some Pokemon rescue, per usual.





	Seeing the Forest Redux

**Author's Note:**

> Been watching a lot of Pokemon XY and XYZ on Netflix lately and I have fanfiction and Amourshipping on the brain. WHYYYYYYY? I finished XYZ this morning and I am sad. I want to see more of our heroes, even if they’re on separate journeys.
> 
> Redux of 1x28 “Seeing the Forest for the Trees!” I know it’s important that Ash and Greninja reconnect, so to speak, but I also think there were things they could have done further with Serena, too, especially given her admiration of (and crush on!) the kid.

Her words to him are still ringing in her head: _You’re not acting like the Ash I know! Give me back the real Ash! Because you sure aren’t him!_

And she had _hit_ him!

With several snowballs, but still. Her anger had gotten the better of her, and she’d lashed out.

Now she feels sorry for it.

She isn’t sorry that she’d gone to find him, nor that she’d tried to get him to open up. But lashing out like that, she does regret.

Sitting at the Pokemon Center sulking isn’t going to do her any good, she decides, pausing in her tracks.

Then snow is falling and she can just hear Nurse Joy calling for Bonnie and Clemont to come inside.

Pulling a Pokeball from her belt, Serena releases Pancham and kneels to face him.

“Pancham, will you go make sure that Bonnie and Clemont know that I’m safe?”

Pancham nods, determination on his face, and scurries back toward the Pokemon Center.

Sighing, Serena returns Pancham’s ball to her belt and then releases Braixen, knowing her fur and fire will come in handy if this snow gets worse.

“Braixen, we’re going to look for Ash, okay?”

Braixen yips affirmatively, looking concerned, and Serena sighs.

“Oh, Braixen, I was so mean to him!” she nearly wails, clutching her hands to her chest. “I said something awful to him, and then I just ran away!”

Braixen whimpers empathetically, setting a paw on her trainer’s shoulder, and Serena sniffs, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“Let’s go find him.”

Braixen nods resolutely next to her, pulling the branch from her tail and leading the way.

They walk for a while, the snow falling faster, and Serena briefly wishes she had gone back to the Pokemon Center with Bonnie and Clemont. Surely it would be warmer.

But Ash matters more to her than the comfort of a building, and she needs to find him and fix her blunder.

A little while into their struggle through the snow, Braixen’s ears perk up and Serena pauses.

“Hear something?”

Braixen points her branch off to their left and Serena asks earnestly, “Do you hear Ash?”

“Braix!” Her partner chirps, the flame on her branch growing just a bit brighter in determination, and Serena follows her Pokemon that direction, hoping that Ash is all right.

Her heart soars as they near a tiny cave tucked behind some trees, and she can just see Ash tucked inside, huddling with what looks like a small group of Pokemon.

Same old Ash, always helping a creature in need.

“Ash!” she cries, rushing toward the cave.

Her shout must not reach him through the storm because as she pulls to a stop and leans over to catch her breath, Ash lets out a “Huh? Serena?”

Serena ignores the tears pricking at her eyes and exclaims, “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

She wishes she could hug him, but the gaggle of Pokemon in his lap make that pretty impossible.

“What are you doing out here in this weather?” Ash asks, his eyes wide. “You could’ve gotten hurt!”

Serena blinks for a second, watching the Pokemon look between the two of them curiously, and nearly explodes, “So could you, you big goof! I came out to look for you and make sure you hadn’t frozen to death!”

The Zigzagoon in Ash’s lap twitches and jumps into Serena’s arms, nuzzling her cheek and whimpering as the tears trickle down her face, frustration leeching out of her at the Pokemon’s concern.

Braixen crosses her arms, sighing as she looks at Ash and then wraps her tail comfortingly around Serena’s middle.

Ash doesn’t say anything for a moment, the Oddish at his knee looking at him curiously and babbling as the others stare at Serena.

“Sorry I worried you,” he says eventually, deflating a little and patting a Sentret on the head, she figures for something to do with his hands. “But you really didn’t have to come after me. I can look after myself, you know.”

Serena swipes at the tears still lingering on her face, looking Ash straight in the eye as she replies indignantly, “No, Ash, apparently you can’t always. You were so sick just a few weeks ago because you were so focused on training! You worried all of us terribly!”

Ash blinks at her as Braixen sets a paw on her shoulder and Zigzagoon licks her cheek.

She’s just done it again, lashing out at him when she probably shouldn’t have, but she really can’t help it—the boy is just so stubborn sometimes.

Serena exhales hard and shifts Zigzagoon so that she can sit down, Braixen following suit.

The Sentret hops over to her, chirping in concern. Serena pats it on the head gently but doesn’t say anything, letting silence wash over the cave.

Until Ash sighs heavily and begins, “I guess you’re right.”

Oddish peeks up at him, the Scatterbug nestling a little closer, and Serena stills, watching him closely.

“I get so caught up in getting stronger and winning that sometimes I lose track of what else is important.”

Serena blinks as Ash meets her gaze, a small smile on his face.

“My friends are really important to me, too, and if you all think I need to take better care of myself, I should probably listen to you.”

“Ash, I—”

“I’m sorry I got mad at you like that,” Ash interrupts, sadness painted on his face. “You were trying to help, and I got stupid.”

“I should be apologizing!” Serena yelps, startling poor Zigzagoon and drawing Ash’s curious gaze.

“I was really mean to you earlier. I never should have said that to you.”

Ash blinks and then flashes that stupid grin she loves. “Nah, what you said was just what I needed to snap out of it! I wanted to thank you for that.”

It’s Serena’s turn to blink, but before she can reply, Ash is gasping and pointing outside. 

“Look! Some Spewpa are stuck up there!”

Before she can even respond, he’s up and running, stopping at the base of a tree where, indeed, a small group of Spewpa are huddled in the storm.

In a moment, he’s climbing the tree, and Serena nearly panics, rushing out to join him.

“Sylveon!” she calls, releasing her Fairy-type from her ball. “Help Ash rescue those Spewpa!”

“Veon!” Her Pokemon replies, lifting feelers to gently wrap around one of the Spewpa.

Ash makes it carefully down the tree with two in his arms, and by the time Sylveon has pulled a second down, there are only two left, perched precariously toward the edge of the branch.

Sylveon pulls one down, and Ash is reaching for the other when a _crack_ echoes.

Serena’s eyes go wide as the branch gives and Ash and the Spewpa begin to fall.

She shouts for Sylveon to catch him, but her Pokemon’s feelers are too slow in the cold and too short to reach her friend, so she can only watch in horror as Ash plummets over the cliff the tree rests over, the Spewpa clutched tightly against him.

Just when she thinks he’s going to be out of reach and injured, a long pink tongue catches him around the middle and they both gasp as they recognize Greninja as his rescuer.

Unfortunately, before Ash and the Spewpa can be pulled to safety, a huge gust of wind causes Ash to lose his grip on the Spewpa, sending it tumbling down the cliffside as Greninja sets Ash carefully down near the tree.

Serena knows Sylveon’s feelers won’t reach that far, but then Greninja is leaping down the cliff, and she can see Ash focusing and becoming one with his Pokemon again. Greninja changes into that Ash-looking form and makes his way back up the cliff with Spewpa safely.

Serena nearly collapses in relief, and Ash looks tired but overjoyed.

“We did it, Greninja!” he crows, pumping a fist in the air, which Greninja copies with the arm not holding Spewpa.

Serena looks down at the group of them, huddled together for warmth, and suggests, “Hey, Ash? We should all get back to the cave, don’t you think?”

Ash nods vigorously, still grinning at Greninja, and herds all the Spewpa back to the cave, where they join the circle of other Pokemon.

The cave is so small, and there are so many Pokemon, that Serena almost recalls Braixen into her ball.

Ash sets a hand over hers, insisting, “Here, we can sit together, and some of the Pokemon can sit in our laps, like before. There’s plenty of room for all of us. Plus, Braixen can help keep us warm.”

His smile is so earnest, so sincere, that Serena is compelled to grin back and scoot over next to him, giggling as the Pokemon settle around them, Zigzagoon reclaiming his place in her lap.

“Hi again,” she says warmly, burying one hand in his fur as the Pokemon sighs and closes his eyes. He’s asleep in moments.

The other Pokemon, with the exception of Greninja and Braixen, all curl up and fall into sleep as well and Ash chuckles quietly.

Serena glances at him and finds a smile on his face. Curious, she asks, “What?”

“This reminds me of Professor Oak’s Pokemon Summer Camp,” Ash replies, leaning back against the cave wall. “I got lost chasing a Pokemon and ended up in this giant tree trunk. A bunch of Pokemon found me and I made friends with them.”

Serena smiles. “That sounds like you.”

Ash hums a bit as he pets the Sentret, back in his lap, and Serena smiles.

“We should probably try to get some rest, too,” Ash suggests. “I hope Bonnie and Clemont are okay.”

“They were heading back into the Pokemon Center with Nurse Joy when I came to find you again,” Serena assures him. “They’re probably asleep by now. Or at least Bonnie is.”

Ash chuckles. “Knowing Clemont, he’s probably staying up late making some machine that will help him find me in the morning.”

Serena giggles at that, shifting Zigzagoon gently and changing her sitting position. “I can just see it: The Ash Finder Mark One.”

Ash laughs, bright and bold, and her heart smiles right along with her mouth.

“Thanks for coming to find me, Serena,” he says then, looking at her with such gratitude that she lets herself lean against him further, pressing her shoulder into his as she smiles back, her eyes closing.

“I’m glad you’re back to the real Ash.”

Greninja mumbles from Ash’s other side while Braixen’s tail encircles them from her spot next to Serena, and as she falls into slumber she just makes out Ash’s chuckled, “Me too. Thanks for not giving up on me.”

 _Never,_ she thinks with a smile, and if she wakes with her head on Ash’s shoulder in the morning, he doesn’t seem to mind.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still not completely sure of that last sentence, but it's there.
> 
> I feel like referring to Pokemon as "it" is weird when some Pokemon clearly have genders (male and female Meowstic look different, for example) and some trainers name their Pokemon. Also, constantly saying "it" in a situation with more than like two Pokemon is confusing for me, so. Male and female pronouns are a thing for me, at least in some cases. You don't have to like it.
> 
> I'm assuming here that Nurse Joy corrals Bonnie and Clemont into staying because the snow is falling harder and they'll get lost so they should wait until morning to find their friends, despite their desire to go after them. Clemont recognizes a smart decision when he hears one, right?
> 
> I may or may not adjust this later. We'll see.


End file.
